[WingsOfStardust]

Without the race favoritism, Thay just would not be Thay. If there was suddenly a Half-Elf Red Wizard running about, or a dumb-as-a-door Half-Orc as a Tribune or Thayan Knight, that would just be odd in a place like Thay.

And being evil is just the easiest way to rise to power within an evil realm, there is no-way an anti-slavery kinda guy would get far within..say the legion.

I fully agree there. If you commit to playing a subrace, you accept the terms in which the society views such and their possibility to live and thrive within the said society. In this case it being Thay.

[The Philosopher]

By Lore, only wealthy Mulan nobles ever even get the chance to be Captains or above.

Thay is not a meritocracy. Nobles and Red Wizards have all the power. The highest a Thayan Rashemi could hope to reach is Thayan Knight or Lieutenant in the Legion, perhaps Captain if exceptionally gifted.

That said.

Mulani are already an overplayed ethnicity in the server, precisely because it is the only ethnicity that has any chance of getting anywhere socially and gets all the chances and the opportunities. There are a pittance of Rashemi or Rashemi-descended people around, even though they are the greater numbers, easily, both in the Legions and in almost every corner of the lower and middle classes of Thay.

We have a decent amount of high-ranking foreigner humans to boot walking around, as well.

The picture one gets is that players will follow the path of least resistance in order to draw more enjoyable play. Personally, I would not like to see a server running rampant with Mulani everywhere, yet that is exactly what restrictions of this kind are pushing us towards. Few people want to play a gimped-by-default character. And I can't say I can blame them, one doesn't usually engage in roleplay to feel utterly disempowered.

The question beckons; how far down the rabbit hole of authenticity do we want to go? Because if we were to do so to the fullest, we might as well do away with the notoriety system altogether and make playing Mulani characters an application-only thing.

[Animayhem]

Without the race favoritism, Thay just would not be Thay. If there was suddenly a Half-Elf Red Wizard running about, or a dumb-as-a-door Half-Orc as a Tribune or Thayan Knight, that would just be odd in a place like Thay.

And being evil is just the easiest way to rise to power within an evil realm, there is no-way an anti-slavery kinda guy would get far within..say the legion.

I am sorry if i was not clear in my post. I was not referring to the restrcited things like Red Wizards, thayan nights or captains in the legion. I mean in the mundane things like temple or faction advancement non- legion where race is less of a hinderance.

[Wing]

I'm with Nehetsrev. I think our system works fine, though I might add.. it could be a bit more challenging than it is now. Seems too many of you have shot all the way up relatively easy and I see that as a problem, not a good thing.

Very much agreed, especially that it is a bit too easy right now.

This has become such a pervasive problem I am cutting my mini-vacation short to work a some potentially major systemic changes to address this, correct this, and avoid this problem in the future. I've only just moments ago brought them up to the staff for discussion, and I will loop in a couple non-staff members soon as well.

I certainly feel I'm one of the folks who have shot up relatively easily, so I thought I'd throw my two cents in. For background, I've been playing this server for just shy of 2 months, probably 6+ hours/day (cough), and my character is level 18. My background is at a server that took me 3 years to reach level 8. Needless to say, I find the advancement rate here very fast !

XP Gain / Speed: Too fast. From a character development standpoint, I've found Maera has gotten levels faster than she can assimilate the changes. That provides rp opportunities of its own, she's had to drink from a firehose, but there's something to be said for the fun of pursuing a goal as well as achieving the goal itself. While I wouldn't trade her level (it's now part of what has shaped who she has become), had that growth path been slower I believe it would have been positive.

There is careful balance between controlling level progression for someone who is playing a jaw-dropping number of hours, and providing a more casual player with a rewarding level of advancement. Perhaps a max xp / day, unlimited notoriety / day system (just to complicate programming ideas even more).

As far as Notoriety: I think programming a way to gain notoriety faster will only add to quicker progression, which I don't think is a good goal. It also seems that turning off xp to earn more notoriety introduces another way to min/max where the focus is on management of rewards rather than game play. Nehetsrev summed up my feelings quite well.

Most of the responses here seem to be in favor of disabling XP gain in some way and doubling Notoriety gain during that period. I, however, hold a different view about how that sort of system might affect things. The way I see it, if everyone suddenly starts gaining notoriety at a faster pace, we will soon end up with a server full of high-ranking individuals and hardly any of those of lower rank for them to give orders to.

I recognize that my background and expectation for character progression is VERY slow compared to most people, and that the success of a world hinges on drawing people to play. Level 8 in 3 years may be a bit slow : ) . I do believe,however, a slower speed would be equally or more rewarding.

-Wing

[MrsJones]

Great post, Wing! And I agree with most of it, but to speak from the other side of the coin... I come from a server where playing those kind of hours would get you to level 20 in under a month. I knew people who did it in a week as a challenge even! I know to a lot of people, that sounds crazy and I personally think that was way too fast. But I'm just worried that if the leveling slows down too much on this server, it will scare away some new players as well as encourage more grinding for xp. I'm not saying don't slow it down at all (though I personally think it's kind of perfect how it is) - I'm just saying, please don't slow it down too much, admins!

[The Philosopher]

I would agree, MrsJones, the pacing is quite nice as it is. I've been playing actively here for a few months, now, and I've yet to reach lvl 14 on my oldest character, despite having played for close to the hours Wing describes for a while at the start.

Right now, with a full-time job and other responsibilities besides, plus the time spent on RPing rather than killing things, I find the pace works quite well for me. It keeps a good sense of progression going over time without it feeling overwhelming.

We musn't forget, though, that time is sped up ICly. One month OOC is quite a few months IC. I think that helps things considerably for IC pacing.

[Animayhem]

I too agree it is fine. My character Cara started roughly January 2013 and did not become a level 20 until feb 2014. I am like the Philospher I have work and rl duties and can not be on as often as I like. I have been involved in a lot of rp. So the pace is not really that fast. People playing continually for six hours a day naturally may advance faster than someone who started the same time but lets say can maybe only play six hours in a week. She did not become Captain until about level 16.

There is also a racial bias as humans and half-humans progress faster than others. Legions advance quicker over temples or other guilds. Slavers rise quickly too.